Thursday, October 30, 2008

Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Mallrats, has delivered in the obviously titled Zack and Miri Make a Porno the sweetest, most real, hilarious romantic comedy of the year.

That’s right – Kevin Smith…a rom-com.

Controversy over the title aside, you really don’t want to miss this one.

Seth Rogen and the glorious Elizabeth Banks (W.) star as the titular characters, two cash-strapped slackers who, facing eviction, decide to make a porno to make ends meet. (No pun intended.)

The catch is Zack and Miri are friends – he’s a lovable lug; she’s a real girl – and have been nothing but platonic friends for 10 years, so this arrangement complicates things.

Sex does that.

But, you know, sometimes you gotta buck up, have a cookie, and f--- your BFF if you want to keep warm.

Literally: Zack and Miri have bills to pay, and they aren’t going to pay themselves.

And now I’ll say it, even though I shouldn’t have to: Hilarity ensues. The two assemble a crew of actors, brainstorm ideas (hear out all their porn titles and laugh out loud), and finally get to talking about the rules of engagement.

And as they delve deeper into uncharted territory, they experience changes that will affect their friendship forever.

For all its profanity, for all its raunch, Zack and Miri Make a Porno has a really big heart, though.

Written and directed by Smith, you’d think the movie would use the laughs it gets to make up for a lack of depth. You’d think wrong. This one’s downright romantic, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it again.

Both Prince William and Prince Harry caught the screening as well. If you want, look to your left, see the links I have listed on this page, pick one you feel definitely will take you to them, and see for yourself.

Following in the somewhat successful footsteps of the young network’s 90210, a reboot of the soapy show currently is in development to be launched next fall.

Darren Star himself, the creator of both Melrose Place and original-flavor 90210, has admitted that a reboot “would be fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened – if it can be put together in the right way.”

I’ll say.

And so would Heather Locklear. Girlfriend needs to thrive once again.

Photo: AlloCine.fr.

Update 1: Former Melrose Place inhabitant and current Gossip Girl co-star Kelly Rutherford would totally be in the former’s reboot, “If they offered me a lot of money!”

Update 2: Melrose Mania is on! And now the question is: Will Heather Locklear slip into her infamous mini-skirts once again?

Hathaway, who has grown from Princess-y starlet into bona fide movie star before our eyes thanks to smartly chosen projects, stars in the film as Kym, a recovering addict who has been in and out of rehab for years.

Kym finally has found a treatment that works for her and is nine months sober when she’s given a weekend pass to attend her older sister Rachel’s wedding in Connecticut.

As you have probably guessed, this mix, this having the prodigal daughter coming home, is the source of the very-real, very-honest, very-raw conflict that makes this such a special occasion for everyone involved. And I mean “special” as in cathartic.

Hathaway still looks Bambi-eyed in Rachel Getting Married – how couldn’t she? – but the Bambi Jenny Lumet (daughter of director Sidney) has written is haunted.

It is beaten and flawed and hurt.

By tapping into that pain pays, Hathaway pays out in spades.

Kym is worlds apart from Rachel, who, played with award worthiness of her own by Rosemary DeWitt, is a study of the same qualities in measured quantities. Both actress and both characters complement each other richly.

The way Demme shot Rachel Getting Married puts us right in the action. The material from which he worked obviously was conducive to this: by making us part of it we get to experience the entire wedding weekend, we feel it, and we get to criticize it. We are there, not as intruders but rather as specters, if you will, looking through sorrow-colored glasses at the sadness of what is being revealed and the joy that is found in the moments that follow.

But both Lumet and Demme take it a step forward and let us into the characters. We are allowed not only to experience and feel and criticize them but we also are encouraged to get to know and respect and root for them.

Hudson’s mother and brother were found dead in their South Side Chicago home last Friday.

The singer-actress’s 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, has been missing since. Hudson is offering a $100,000 reward for his safe return. “If anyone has any information about his whereabouts please contact the authorities immediately,” she said in a statement.

Photo: EarSucker.com.

Update: CNN.com has broken the news that an SUV connected to the case has been found. A medical examiner is checking reports of a child’s body inside.

Elle Macpherson. Heidi Klum. Jason Statham?The first two have been called, at one point or another, “The Body,” and I think it’s about time we call a man the same.Obviously – just take a look-see at right – Statham is as fine as specimen as any to earn the nickname, don’t you think, don’t you think?I mean….Oh yeah, to take a look-see at the front of that shot, click here.He’s like, quite possibly “the last action star” – and he’s not apologizing for it. On Nov. 26, we will see him doing what he does best when Transporter 3 opens in a theater near you.Photo: Filmofilia.com.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Big-screen Heroes

In next February’s Push, a group of American expats with “extraordinary gifts” – Chris Evans moves objects with his mind, Camilla Belle can make her thoughts your own, and Dakota Fanning can see the future – are hiding in Hong Kong from a U.S. government agency that is hunting them down.

Naturally, the movie’s heroes must use their different talents and band together for a final job enabling them to escape the agency forever.

I want to see this very much.

Especially now that TV’s Heroes is beginning to really aggroy – not that I’ll give up on it anytime soon, mind you.

Right now, the Queen of Pop appears to be sitting pretty at her throne – especially if it’s true that Ritchie called her not-so-nice names – but this article suggests that in the long run, it’ll be the film director the one who will be better lit in this show.

Early voting has been going all week, so I cannot help but wonder: Have you voted yet?

Or, are you one of them undecided voters author David Sedaris can’t believe exist?

“Are [undecided voters] professional actors?” he wonders. “Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

“To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. ‘Can I interest you in the chicken?’ she asks. ‘Or would you prefer the platter of s--- with bits of broken glass in it?

“To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.”

Dos Santos says the in-demand actress (not!), “was not gelling creatively with the series…was not so interested in creating a character… was more interested in just playing herself, and that doesn’t work on a show like this with such heightened reality.”

You’re just a little silly, Linds. And you disappoint me, you deeply disappoint me.

Photo: E! Online.

Update: So was L2 supposed to do five or six episodes of Ugly Betty this season? I mean, are the reports counting her cameo in last season's finale or not?

Not important, really. Word on the street is it was the show’s star, America Ferrera, the one who lobbied to get Lohan off the show ASAP, and that La Ferrera “couldn’t handle [La Lohan] stealing her thunder.”

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Bomer Welcome

Matt Bomer, the up-and-comer who could’ve been Superman, and the star of the gone-but-not-forgotten TV show Traveler, oh, and a recurring guest star on NBC’s Chuck, has signed on to headline his own show on USA Network.

White Collar, a buddy-cop project of sorts, chronicling the partnership between a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years, will pair Bomer with Tim DeKay (HBO’s Carnivàle).

No air date has been set yet, but I dare you, USA Network, to look at that face and not pick up this pilot. I double-dare ya.

I have but one reason to ask a friend of mine to give me back but now my DVDs of the first season of Showtime’s The Tudors: Henry Cavill.

The actor plays the notorious Charles Brandon, an elevated commoner and schemer whose character evolves from a playboy in the show’s first season to the politically aware and socially conscious duke by the second.

Look for him on the big screen in Joel Schumacher’s Creek and in the upcoming Whatever Works, a Woody Allen film in which he plays an actor in New York.

But in the meantime, you must see him on the pages of L.A. Confidential, which you can preview here.

In Jan. 9’s Bride Wars – that title should clue you in as to what this is all about (i.e., if my headline already didn’t) – Kate Hudson and likely 2009 Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway star as lifelong friends who have been dreaming of helping throw each other’s dream wedding for-frakkin’-ever.

That is until someone makes a mistake at the wedding planner’s and books both their weddings dates at The Plaza Hotel on the same day.

Uh oh.

As the race to the altar heats up, it becomes one filled with subterfuge (think spray-tanning surprises and hair-highlighting hijinks), and the two BFF will fight until only one bride is left standing in her something new, something old, something borrowed, and something blue.

I see that you’ve released “Miles Away” as your new single. Love the song.

But couldn’t you have included a remix in the CD, or perhaps, I don’t know – another song to preview a single to come? “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” is an adult contemporary hit in the waiting. What were you (not) thinking?

Quit taking cheap shots at Guy Ritchie, and don’t stand there like some silly girl.

Monday, October 20, 2008

American Boy

Yesterday, I caught a screening of W., and, trust, not because I wanted to see it: I simply, unwittingly reversed the 12:05 p.m. start time of Rachel Getting Married with the 12:50 p.m. start time of director Oliver Stone’s presidential biopic.

After all, why would I want to spend my hard-earned money on a movie opening, as EW.com pointed out, “during tough economic times about a man whom many blame for said financial strains”?

Alas, there I was standing in line. So I made lemonade. (The movie, btw, unlike its subject matter, met expectations, making $10.6 million its first weekend out.)

And here I am to tell you that W. is by no means a bad movie, it’s just not all that informative. Yes, it takes us through George W. Bush’s, the good US of A’s 43rd president, quite eventful life. But I didn’t think it gave me any insight into his life, at least no new insight.

We see “Dubya,” through a series of flashbacks, struggle and (arguably) triumph during his college years at Yale, striving to live up to the Bush legacy, a constant of his life according to Stone and his writer, Stanley Weiser (Stone’s Wall Street co-writer).

We see him meet his future wife Laura Bush at a barbecue setup that’s equal parts awkward and cute (because this is the only setting in which his aggroying Every Joe shtick really ever works – and for a sweet cause, no less).

We see him get saved – from booze (and drugs, right?) – but unfortunately not from his low self-esteem, and always fall upward thanks to his last name.

And we see him in the critical days leading up to his decision to invade Iraq, egged on by a manipulative cadre of yes people. You know who they are. And you know how that turned out.

Mostly, though, we see Josh Brolin in W., and he’s just dandy. He not only has the mannerisms we’ve come to find annoying, endearing, and yes, even amusing down pat, he enlivens them with a humanity that is – gasp! – hard to resist.

Brolin captures the spirit and the charisma of the man, the poor little rich boy who could not help but disappoint, deeply disappoint his father, as well as the flaws of the politician who will go down in history as perhaps one of the worst presidents ever to govern America.

The movie may not have broken any ground as a biography, but it did provide some fascinating moments, most set in the confines of meeting rooms in the Bush White House. Those I found interesting, but there weren’t enough to keep this lemonade cool and tasty.

I hope to God John McCain and Sarah Palin do not win the election next month, but boy am I going to miss seeing all the wonderful things Saturday Night Live would do should Palin become the vice president of the United States.

Not! (Ish.)

Good-sport (at last) Palin is good for a laugh now, indeed – seeing a very-pregnant Amy Poehler rap with such gusto had me in stitches – but can you really stomach having to deal with her and McCain for four more years of Republican regime?

I don’t think so.

I hope there’s some truth to this thing the media are calling “The [Tina] Fey Effect,” and that all this fun actually will hurt the Republican ticket’s chances on Nov. 4.

Last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy, titled “Brave New World,” featured easily the best lines Chandra Wilson has had to utter so far this season.

The look alone Wilson’s Dr. Bailey shot the way of Sara Ramirez’s Dr. Torres after the latter disclosed she was seeing Brooke Smith’s Dr. Hahn was priceless. What Wilson had to say later in the episode, though, well…that was phenomenal:

The cover story of the new Entertainment Weekly features some inside scoop on J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, a “surprising, idealistic odyssey, which may end up with Kirk [&] Co. driving next summer’s box office juggernaut.”

There’s already a teaser for the movie out there…more specifically here.

I guess if I ought to become a new fan of this, Abrams is the guy I want to boldly take me where I’ve never been before, right, Felicity, Alias, Lost, Cloverfield, and Fringe fans?

I’ve been waiting to see the new video for The Killers’ “Human” for weeks now (seeing them on Saturday Night Live earlier this month only made it worse).

Well, the band’s back, following the love-it-or-hate-it Sam’s Town with their latest, Day & Age, which will hit stores on Nov. 25 and on which they worked with Madonna’s main collaborator on Confessions on a Dance Floor, Stuart Price.

You can listen to The Killer’s “Human” on their MySpage page, natch – what’s with those lyrics, anyway? – and you can watch the video here.

The cabler that Queer as Folk put on the map at the beginning of the decade is finally enjoying its day in the sun as the go-to cabler in Hollywood.

Hit shows like The L Word and Weeds helped usher in more hits, like Californication, Dexter, and The Tudors, and quite soon you will be able to add United States of Tara, an original idea from Steven Spielberg developed by Diablo Cody starring Toni Collette, to that list.

Collette will play a mom with multiple personalities opposite Sex and the City’s John Corbett (be still my heart!).

“It’s moving, it’s confronting, it’s outrageous,” says the actress.

And funny-looking, too. I’m already loving the fact that the trucker hat Collette wears as one of her personalities on the show looks exactly like the one a BFF used to wear all the frakkin’ time.

Starring Kristin Scott Thomas as Juliette, this film tells the story of a woman who reunites with her sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) after 15 years.

The reason for her absence: Juliette’s been…uhh…away, which Léa didn’t know. Confronted with the unexpected goodness of her younger sister, who makes her a part of her family, Juliette’s bitterness and icy façade slowly begins to melt as the drama comes to a boil.

Scott is said to deliver a knockout performance, and I’ve Loved You So Long promises to stir its audience.

After months of speculation, Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, announced a few minutes ago that the singer and her husband, Guy Ritchie, will divorce after 7 1/2 years together.

A statement e-mailed to The Associated Press from Rosenberg said that the couple had agreed to divorce, and requested the media maintain respect their privacy. Yeah, good luck with that one.

The statement, co-signed by Ritchie’s representative, said the couple had not agreed to a settlement.

I wonder what M will say tonight when her “Sticky & Sweet Tour” stops in Boston. She’s either going to be totally aloof about the news or she’s going to be moo-dy, meaning she’ll pop a string or two from her guitar and she’ll stick to the script until she’s blue in the face.

The whole thing is sad, really. Expect a new album full of breakup songs from the Queen of Pop in the next couple of years, though.

Update 2: Meanwhile, Guy Ritchie spent the day working on Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. in London. Ritchie is said to be “sort of relieved that it's all out there [now].”

Update 3: At her concert in Boston, M is said to have dedicated “Miles Away” to “the emotionally retarded. Maybe you know some people who fall into that category. I know I do.”

Ouch. That’s a change of tune if I ever heard one. Effective way to promote your new single, though.

Update 4: Which breakup anthem should Madonna add to her “Sticky & Sweet” set list, EW.com is wondering.

One of her own hits, like “Bye Bye Baby,” or “The Power of Goodbye,” or “You’ll See” – or Beyoncé’ “Irreplaceable”? Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”? Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way”? No Doubt’s “Ex-Girlfriend”? Or how about pal Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River”?

Music fans have been waiting for Dido to release a new record for quite some time, and now the wait is almost over: Her latest, Safe Trip Home, is scheduled to arrive in stores on Nov. 18.

In an early review published yesterday, The Observer noted that although the album is “overwhelmingly colored” by the singer’s father’s death in 2006, it isn’t gloomy.

“The outstanding song of the album,” the review said, “is the piercingly beautiful, Celtic-flavored ‘Grafton Street,’ a six-minute hymn to loss co-written with Brian Eno and featuring Mick Fleetwood on drums.

“Listen to it once and it will catch at your heart as a wrenching lament for a lover who will not return. Listen to it again knowing it’s an account of visiting her father during his last illness and death (‘My love, I know you're leaving, but I will stay here with you’) and [we] guarantee you will be bawling your eyes out uncontrollably long after the album has finished.”

Saturday, October 11, 2008

I had last-minute tickets that were just sick – seventh row, on the floor (jealous?) – and was so looking forward to enjoying the concert, which I so did, considering the week I’d had.

Having a car accident on hump day sucks. But I digress.

Thicke went on first. He never fails to disappoint, although I wished A) that his record company had splurged a little on his stage (because he deserves it), and B) that he’d performed more songs from his latest, Something Else, and not just the lead single, “Magic,” mostly because I’ve seen him perform “Lost Without U,” “Shooter,” and “Wanna Love U Girl” before – I wanted to hear “Dreamworld.”

Oh well, the price of admission paid for itself with him alone. But then there was Mary.

MJB came out clad in black leather, rocking shades and thigh-high fringe Christian Louboutin boots. The look was pure divalicious with an edge.

I enjoy Blige’s music quite a bit, but this was her tour – last spring, I saw her in Miami when she hit the road with Jay-Z) – so, natch, this time around I wanted and expected to hear the lovely “Come to Me (Peace).”

The fact that she didn’t sing it, well…it made me want to write a letter to her, telling her she owes me now.

At the same time, though, I figured, after all this time sans beam, that hearing it performed live wasn’t meant to be, either.

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Cover That Shook the World

Is the November cover of W, showing the lady half of the phenomenon known as Brangelina, breastfeeding one of their newborn twins, just too gorgeous for words or is it just too hypocritical of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

I and others cannot help but wonder since the subhead dubs the portfolio, shot exclusively for the magazine by Pitt, as a “private” affair.

Discuss.

Photo: EW.com.

Update: Click here to read the W story and see some of the accompanying portfolio.

In an unprecedented move, Quantum of Solace star Daniel Craig has revealed that – gasp! – he’s had cosmetic surgery.

“It [was] a stupid inconvenience because we had to stop filming,” he said. “But they gave me an excellent plastic surgeon.”

The 40-year-old actor, who was recently spotted wearing an arm sling, had to have eight stitches in his face after being accidentally kicked by an unnamed co-star on the set of the latest James Bond movie opening next month.

Craig also discussed his approach to playing 007.

“I wanted some fallibility. It’s no good if Bond is a cocktail-swigging sexist pig with no interior struggle. Bond is often pissed off or upset, and I wanted to bring that out,” he said. “I won’t play [him] forever. But I’d like to think I’ve added something to the lineage of how the man has changed.”

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Paris Hilton’s Serious About her Presidency

Heir-head Paris Hilton feels like “running for fake president is a little daunting,” so she did what anyone in her position should and asked one of our generation’s most well-regarded fake presidents – Martin Sheen (TV’s The West Wing) – for some fake advice.

That was a smart move on Hilton’s part, I gotta say.

The result is yet another FunnyOrDie.com video. I mean, she got Sheen to say, “Loves it.”

See Hilton “at the fake inauguration, bitches” – but see the video now:

Update: When Hilton’s in the White House (not), she “won’t have a cabinet; I will have a closet. A giant walk-in closet with all styles of advisers, like Michael Kors, Kanye West, Diane von Furstenberg, Naughty by Nature, Stephen Hawking, Madonna, Karl Lagerfeld, and, of course, Tinkerbell [her chihuahua].” (Wait – she knows who Stephen Hawking is?)

On their way to the venue. From the venue. Honestly, if I weren’t so fond of them I would’ve hung up the phone, hung up on them.

Last night, though, my devotion to the Queen of Pop made me feel pathetic because I spent about 30 minutes total – from bits and pieces of “Beat Goes On” to some of “Vogue” to almost an entire set’s worth, from “Into the Groove” to “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” through half of “Spanish Lesson” – listening (as I cooked and ate dinner) to a poor-quality IPhonecast of the concert.